ith less than 24 hours until Thanksgiving feasts begin around the country, there is no business like turkeys business for local supermarket and grocery owners.

"People are buying their turkeys earlier this year and we have sold a lot more turkeys than last year," said Rocky J. Jraziano, who was busy stacking turkeys in the meat department at Star Market In Porter Square yesterday.

Jraziano said people tend to buy only turkey for Thanksgiving and not as much of the other meat products as they do for Christmas. He said Star Market is offering different types of turkeys to give customers a wide variety from which to choose.

Turkeys have been on sale since the beginning of last week in an effort to maximize profits, Jraziano said.

"Competition is very high each year and so you have to offer customers the best deal if you want to sell," he said.

When it comes to buying turkeys, Lorenzo Graham, a regular customer at Star Market, said, "I look for fresh turkeys at a good price."

Star Market turkeys range from 69 cents to 79 cents per pound. Turkeys in smaller grocery stores are more expensive. At Sage's Market on Church Street, turkeys range from 99 cents to $1.09 per pound.

"There is no money in turkeys anymore," said Dwight Perodeau, manager of Sage's Market. "Competition is too high."

Perodeau said supermarkets like Star Market push down turkey prices in the hope that customerswill purchase other goods while buying cheapturkeys.

Sage's Market offers both cooked and freshturkeys to try and beat the competition.Supermarkets generally offer just fresh turkeys,Jraziano said.

Not everyone is looking forward to turkey,though. A shopper at Star Market, who did not wantto be identified, said, "We do not eat turkeybecause we are vegetarian, but Thanksgiving isstill a big deal to us. We have a wide variety ofvegetarian dishes and pies instead."

Still, business today should be hectic,Perodeau said, as people rush to do some lastminute turkey-buying